Many students enjoyed using The Space during this past school year, designing, constructing and creating under the guidance of Mr. Bruce. How about getting into tinkering and constructing this week with whatever resources and materials you currently have available? Maybe you even have the opportunity to do some building and constructing outside, at the beach, in a backyard or forest. Afterwards, you could write, draw or sketch about what you made. I would love to see it after the summer.

And here are, as always, a few books you might enjoy reading in connection with this week’s theme of tinkering, designing, and constructing:

​Nonfiction books

The Daring Book for Girls (Andrea J. Buchanan)

The Dangerous Book for Boys (Conn Igulden)

Make: Easy 1+2+3 Projects (by the editors of Make)

Everything Robotics (Jennifer Swanson, National Geographic)​The Way Things Work Now (David Macauley)

​​During the school year, it often is simply too busy for elaborate cooking and enjoying extended time over a meal with family and friends. That is why I treasure it so much during the holidays. Do you and your family feel the same way? If yes, how about organizing a very special meal together this week? You could put it under a summer reading theme, selecting dishes inspired by children’s books like Patricia Polacco’s Thundercake, the vegetable soup from Grace Lin’s The Ugly Vegetables, the meatballs from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, dumplings from Ying Chang Compestine’s Boy Dumpling, a dessert inspired by Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – or any other dish mentioned in a favourite book.

You could make invitations, put a special menu together, write a shopping list of all the ingredients needed, go shopping, then cook and enjoy. The whole family could help and have fun with this. What do you think?

Here are a few special reading suggestions connected to cooking and food, which might inspire you further:

If you aren’t already keeping a summer journal, it isn’t too late… This might be the right time for you as you most probably already enjoyed some great times and might have lots of ideas and memories to record. It doesn’t really matter how you go about it – you could use only words, or words and pictures, comic strips, annotated sketches, photos – whatever works best for you to tell your story and keep those summer memories alive. Make sure to include the wonderful books you are reading as well so that we can share recommendations with each other after the summer.

​If you need some more inspiration, you might like to read some books about journaling and writing:

I made a mistake here when I put the summer program together, thinking the FIFA World Cup in Russia would be over by now, when in fact, we are yet to see the semi-finals and finals. Apologies for that. I do hope you are having fun watching the matches. During the year, I don’t follow league matches anymore, but I love tournaments like the World Cup very much. While we know which countries traditionally have strong teams, you can never predict how the teams will do in such a tournament and there are often big surprises and upsets, making it very exciting. Germany returning home after the first round, bottom of their group, was definitely a big surprise. Congratulations especially to South Korea for their fantastic play against our German team! Seeing Germany leave early didn't stop me from watching other matches and cheering for other teams, and I will definitely continue until the finals are over.

Here are some ideas of what you might like to do this week in connection with our theme of soccer:

Find out 5 fun facts about each of the countries that played in the semi-finals.

There are different names (soccer – football) and different variations (European soccer, American football, Aussie football etc.) of the team sport played with a ball and one’s feet and at times other body parts. Find out more about the different forms and countries they are played in and/or originated from. If you have Internet access, you could search World Book Online.​Organize a friendly soccer match with family members and friends. Maybe you can have a barbeque afterwards together.

As always, see whether you can get some books to read about this week’s theme. Here are a few suggestions:

Recently, I came across the fascinating account of two female journalists – Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland – who in 1889 tried to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional character Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in under 80 days. Traveling has become so comfortable and fast, that it is easy to forget what the beginnings looked like.

​Here are some ideas of what you might like to do this week in connection with our theme of traveling/transportation:

Pick up an atlas or a globe and put an itinerary together for a journey around the world with start in Hong Kong. What countries would you pass through? What means of transportation would you use?

If you have the opportunity, chat with a grandparent about what traveling and transportation looked like when they were children.

Find out if there is a museum near you about forms of transportation (should you by chance come through Germany, near Stuttgart are two fantastic automobile museums, the Mercedes Benz Museum and the Porsche Museum).

Here are some title suggestions of books around traveling/transportation:

Picture books about traveling/transportation​Are We There Yet?(Alison Lester)Lost in Hong Kong(Matthew Cooper)Two Little Trains(Margret Wise Brown)Everything Goes: On Land / in the Air / by Sea(Brian Biggs)​Locomotive(Brian Floca)